US to outline legal backing for 'targeted kill' programme

Speech by attorney general to address use of lethal force against Americans overseas who are suspected of plotting terrorist attacks

In September a drone strike killed the US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was accused of plotting terrorist attacks while sheltering in Yemen. Photograph: Site Intelligence Handout/EPA

In September a drone strike killed the US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was accused of plotting terrorist attacks while sheltering in Yemen. Photograph: Site Intelligence Handout/EPA

Associated Press

Published on Mon 5 Mar 2012 02.58 EST

The Obama administration is to outline how it says US laws empower the government to kill Americans overseas who engage in terrorism against their home country, according to a source.

In September a drone strike killed the US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was accused of plotting attacks while sheltering in Yemen. Civil liberties groups have pressured the administration to justify what has been described as a top-secret "targeted kill" programme in which Americans who have joined al-Qaida or other militant groups abroad are deemed legitimate targets.

The US attorney general, Eric Holder, plans to address the issue and the underpinning legal principles for using lethal force during remarks at Northwestern University School of Law on Monday afternoon in Chicago, the source said on Sunday, on condition of anonymity.

The Obama administration has increased the use of unmanned aerial drones against terrorism suspects. US officials have said little publicly about the programme but some officials said in 2011 that Americans such as Awlaki could be placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior US government officials which would then inform the president of its decisions.

Holder will probably link the justification with another argument made by the administration: that both civilian and military courts can successfully try terrorism suspects.

The speech will be the latest attempt by the administration to address the issue, an unusual break with the past when there was virtually no discussion about the top-secret programme.

The defence department lawyer Jeh Johnson in February referred to the so-called "targeted kill" programme, saying it pursued legitimate military targets overseas. He rejected suggestions that the United States was engaged in assassination.

"Under well-settled legal principles, lethal force against a valid military objective, in an armed conflict, is consistent with the law of war and does not, by definition, constitute an assassination," Johnson said at Yale Law School.

The American Civil Liberties Union on 1 February sued the Obama administration in federal court, demanding that Holder's justice department release any legal memoranda justifying targeting Americans overseas using lethal force. The ACLU called such power a "breathtaking assertion" and warned it would be available to future presidents as well.

"The administration is asserting the unreviewable authority to kill any American whom the president declares to be an enemy of the state," said Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal director.

US officials have linked Awlaki to several plots against the United States, including the 2009 Christmas Day attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a US commercial airliner as it arrived in Detroit from Amsterdam with a bomb hidden in his underwear.